To See, To Feel
by 6lilypad8
Summary: Soul realizes he'll never be able to see Maka's wings, but maybe there's something he could do instead.


**First one-shot, not my best but it'll do.**

Sometimes Soul could feel it. The outside looking in. He'd turn around, looking for her. Sometimes she'd be right there, her eyes holding that odd glow. Others, she would be in another room, not seeing anything but his soul surrounded by darkness.

Whenever he catches her looking, Maka never gets bashful. She'll smirk at him, she knows his secrets. But then he doesn't care. When he feels restless, he'll respond to her looks. Turning, he'll smile and ask, "Like what you see?"

That will usually turn her cheeks bright red. She'll sputter, knock something over, and stumble from the room. It will make Soul's day. He'll chuckle happily, then spend the rest of the day in a daydream about Maka's blush.

The realization comes later. A couple missions after everything's calmed down. Maka's mind returns to the question she'd asked just before meeting the Demon Sword. _What do souls taste like?_

"Hey Soul," her hands are clasped behind her back, like usual. "What do souls feel like?"

He blinks at her. Every once in a while Maka's curiosity surprises him. "What?"

She rolls her eyes, "Souls, Soul, what do souls feel like?"

He rubs off a lingering drop of drool after he swallows the soul they just collected. "Haven't you touched souls before? You talk about them all the time."

Maka shrugs, "Kinda. Every time I held a soul, it wasn't exactly in the physical world."

Soul looked at her, than shook his head. "Alright I'm confused."

Maka smiles, laughing she says, "If you paid attention in class you would know this."

"Explain it to me."

"Uhm, okay. It's like this; souls are on a different plane of existence. They're always there, but normal people can't see or feel them. All magic exists on this separate plane, example you scythe. You know how you can always feel it there, inside of you, even when you're not in scythe mode? That's because it is there. Just not on this plane of existence."

"Okay, what does that have to do with touching the souls?"

"Well, because you are a part of this other plane all the time, part of you is always attached to your scythe, you can feel it. Souls are on this other plane and you're _kinda_ on this other plane, so you can feel them."

Soul nodded in understanding. She was right, he could feel the cool metal there, just beneath the surface but in reality, this reality at least, he was blood and guts through and through. But that wasn't what he didn't understand, "But, Maka, you can see souls, why can't you _touch_ them?"

Maka shrugged. Soul had taken her hand while they walked. It had become almost a ritual after every mission. She liked the warmth he shared. "The ability to see souls is just that, an ability. Like how you understand music, I understand the other plane of existence. I can't touch it because I'm not _a part_ of it."

Soul takes in this information. Suddenly he stops, pulling Maka to a sop as well. "Wait, is that why I always feel funky when I stand too close to Stein?"

Maka giggled, "Probably; Stein's soul has a radius of maybe five feet."

Soul shivered. Maka tugged him back into motion and they made their way to Soul's motorcycle. When they got back to their hotel, Maka asked him, "You never answered the question; what does a soul feel like?"

Soul shrugged, "I don't know. It's kind of, uh, squishy? But with a solid center. It is light, but somehow heavy. You can feel the magic burn around your fingers. It's hard to explain."

Maka nodded, filing this tid-bit away for future questions. Once inside their room, Maka stationed herself on the bed and began carefully peeling off her gloves. Soul got their personal first-aid kit. He kneeled in front of her, preparing Neosporin and Band-Aids. Holding out her hands, he began to work. That particular kishin egg had liked sharp projectiles, and though Maka had been able to block most, they had skimmed her hands frequently. She flinched as Soul cleaned the nicks and scrapes.

By the end, her hands were covered with gauze instead of gloves. Next she gently took off his headband. With careful fingers, Maka brushed back Soul's porcelain colored hair. Hidden by his bangs was a deep cut just above his eyebrow. She cleaned it, then put a plaster on to protect the wound.

Soul had his eyes closed. It helped him from preemptively flinching. When she had finished patching him up, Soul could feel their connected wavelength intensify. The outside looking in. Opening his eyes, he could see that far off look. Maka's eyes held a glow as she witnessed his whole truth.

When had they become so close? When had he no longer shied away from her curious glances? When had he allowed himself to bare his soul to her? Did it matter?

He waited for her eyes to return to their olive green color. She smiled and whispered, "I see you."

Maybe a smile ghosted across his lips but Soul would never admit it. He moved off to change into clean clothes. As he changed, he inquired, "Hey, if I can feel the souls of living people, why haven't I felt yours? We've been partners for two years."

Maka blushed, her eyes travelling to the mirror on the other side of the room. Her eyes reached into the land of other, then she could see. Since this had all began, when they had taken on of Blair's souls, her soul _had_ grown. She was reaching Black Star's strength, but the two students were nowhere near the level of Stein or Kidd. The wings of her Grigori soul expanded, letting her mind's eye see an angel.

"My soul isn't that big. It hasn't expanded outside my body yet."

"Yet?" he was returning from the bathroom now, wearing a sleep shirt and PJ pants.

Maka shrugged, "I hope, at least."

"What's it look like? Your soul, I mean."

Maka moved to the bathroom to change. Soul makes himself comfortable in the bed closest to the door. When she came back out, Maka tried to explain. "They're not red, like the kishin eggs. They look like the diagrams in class. They're blue, with a ghostly glow, burning with the fire of life, you know."

"That's not what I asked Maka. What does _your_ soul look like?"

When she came back out, she looked to the mirror. Soul watched her eyes but they didn't change. She says, "It's small, but getting bigger. It used to have pigtails but now they're wings. Usually my wings are wrapped up around my soul, protectively, like a hug. When I'm excited, like during a fight or at one of Liz's parties, they flair out. When they're flared, they look… powerful."

"I wish I could see," Soul responded.

Maka settled down into the other bed, not responding. Soul turned out the light but didn't go to sleep. Propping his head up with his hands, he stared at the ceiling in the dark. After a few minutes he asked, "Could I feel them? Your wings? I mean, would I be able to?"

At first, Maka didn't answer. Soul wasn't sure if she was awake. Then she said, "Technically you're able to, but I'm not as strong as Stein or Kidd. Touching my wings is a bad idea."

Soul wanted to ask why, but he could hear her roll over. The conversation was over.

But something about that conversation wouldn't settle with Soul. All the information she had given him kept flipping over in his head. He stayed quiet the whole ride back to Death City thinking. Maka took peeks at his soul all the time. They, very recently, started going out. The two of them had yet to tell anyone. Maka's constant awareness of his soul had always been intimate. But Soul didn't have that ability, he couldn't see her soul. Just imagine with her description and textbook pictures.

He had an uncontrollable urge to touch her wings.

So that's what he set out to do.

One night, after a fancy dinner and a horror movie they laughed through, they made it back to their apartment. Soul gently pulled the bands out of her pigtails. His long fingers untangled her long hair. He couldn't help but smile, sometimes he felt like all he ever wanted to do was to stare at her. Memorize every curve. Fall into her eyes. Float in her presence forever.

Then they were kissing. And Soul's head was flooded with Maka, Maka, Maka. Her hands were in his hair. His teeth were scraping her bottom lip. His hands were up her shirt. Maka shivered, Soul's hand was cold, but Maka shuffled forward anyway. Then something happened. The world seemed to buzz. Everything morphed into another dimension. All of Soul's senses shifted into overdrive in everything related to Maka.

He could hear each short breath. Smell her shampoo and soup. The scent that was distinctly Maka. His nerve endings were on fire with her touch. The taste of her on his tongue made his head spin.

Their souls were resonating. And Maka was excited.

Soul's hand reached up her back. Then he could feel it. He could actually feel Maka's wings!

She gasped, pulling away.

Soul went into panic mode, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. You told me not to. I'm sorry."

But Maka was shivering. There were tears in her eyes. Yet her face wasn't set in a grimace. Instead her cheeks were dyed a beautiful scarlet. "I-it d-d-d-doesn't hurt. I promise."

His eyes scrunched up, eyebrows coming together, "May I do it again?"

Maka couldn't rekindle her voice, so instead she nodded, insistence clear. So he did. Reaching out, his fingers grazed along the odd texture the wings of her soul had. Shivers racked her body as she fell into him.

"You okay?"

"F-f-fine."

His fingers tousled the invisible feathers. The feeling around his fingers was like the tingling of magic. As if he was holding onto another world.

Suddenly he was flooded with emotion. They weren't his. But the deep love surrounding him brought the prickly feeling of pre-tears to his eyes. When they resonated souls, he could get to glimpses of her thoughts and emotions. This though, this had no barricade.

"Does it feel good? Bad? Should I stop?"

A mixture of _feelings_ washed over him. Tinges of annoyance and impatience wore through an overarching feeling of deep pleasure.

"Maka, I'm not you. I can't tell what people mean by how their soul reacts."

She huffed, sound a little more pleasure filled then exhausting, "Don't stop, idiot. It feels—"

Soul's hands had ghosted back to the base of her wings near her back.

"Wonderful~"

Soul closed his eyes, feeling through her. Then asked, "Why are you reacting so much? Stein doesn't react when I walk _through_ his soul."

She didn't respond for a moment, as he was massaging the joint between the left wing and her back. "Soul, you are _literally_ touching my soul. You're the first person to touch my soul… And I love you. The connection is stronger between the two of us, creating the stronger reaction."

Soul would never admit it but when Maka went into lecture mode, he stopped thinking with his brain. Something about the way her lips moved around the words. Or how her eyes shone with shared knowledge. Or maybe the way she gave her student her undivided attention.

Soul pulled his hands away from the invisible aura. No matter how enticing her flushed cheeks and half lidded eyes were, he need to stop. Before things got out of hand.

Maka clutched at his jacket dazed. Her hands were strong and callused from wielding him. When her breathing returned to normal, Soul asked, "You cool?"

She didn't respond for a second. "I'm cool. That was just… That was… I don't know."

"I'm sorry."

Maka looked up at him then, "Don't be. That was amazing. I just… wasn't expecting it. It was… nice."

She pressed her hand to his chest, "But you touched my soul. That was… I could feel everything."

Soul smiled, his sharp teeth showing themselves. "Me too. That was a stronger connection then the resonance."

"Yeah. Let's just not do that in front of _anyone_ else. Okay?"

Soul nodded, pulling Maka back into his chest. They lay there for a while, just breathing.

"I love you Maka."

Quiet. Then…

"I love you too."


End file.
